Favorite Seafood Recipes

Angels on Horseback

Ingredients
36 oysters, shucked, preferably small or cut in half if large
36 strips of meaty bacon
18 bamboo skewers soaked in cold water

Marinade/Basting sauce
3 T sherry
3 T brown sugar
2 T water
2 T soy sauce
2 T vegetable oil
1 1/2 t minced ginger
2 t garlic, crushed

Mix marinade/basting sauce ingredients in a sauce pan. Boil for about 3-5 minutes until thick and syrupy. Reserve half of sauce for dipping later. Let the remaining sauce cool.

Put oysters in marinade for about 30 minutes. Reserve marinade. Then wrap each oyster with a piece of bacon. Skewer the oyster and bacon to hold it together. Put two oysters to a skewer. Barbecue oysters on grill until bacon is done. You'll need to flip wrapped oysters often and baste with marinade.

Serve with dipping sauce.

- Don Chase

Asian Style Oysters

Ingredients
36 oysters, fresh in the shell
2 tsp garlic, crushed
1 tsp red chili pepper, minced
2 tsp ginger, minced
3 tsp lemon grass
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2-3 tsp fresh mint, chopped fine
lime juice
fish sauce
salt
sugar
freshly ground black pepper

Open oysters over a dish and allow their juices to drip in. Remove top shells and discard, then loosen the oysters from the bottom shells. (Hint: It's a lot easier and they have just bit of a better taste if you grill them until the shell just pops open.)

Place garlic, chili, ginger and lemon grass in a sauce pan to a medium hot pan with the oil. Fry gently until very aromatic then add the mint.

Make up a generous amount of sauce with lime juice, fish sauce, salt, sugar and pepper in proportions to taste and simmer gently for about 1 minute. Drop oysters, and reserved liquid into pot and heat gently just long enough to warm the oysters through. Return oysters to shells, and drop fried herbs on top with a portion of the sauce.

- Don Chase

Pan Fried Oysters

Ingredients
12 oysters
1/2 cup milk
1 beaten egg
pinch white pepper
pinch nutmeg
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 t garlic powder
1/2 t onion powder
1/4 t oregano, dried
1/4 t basil, dried
1 T grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 T butter
1 T olive oil

Rinse oysters and pat dry, lay them on a paper towel on a dish. In one bowl, mix milk, pepper and nutmeg. In another bowl, have beaten egg, and in a third bowl, mix bread crumbs, garlic, onion, oregano, basil, parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Have a frying pan with butter and olive oil with medium heat ready.

Process oysters by dredging through milk, then dredging into egg, then rolling into bread crumbs and then place them into ready frying pan. I try and do about four to six at a time. After about 3-5 minutes turn oysters and cook about 3 more minutes. Do not over cook. Serve with fresh slices of lemon.

- Don Chase

Clam Fettucine

Ingredients
1 can clams, chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
2-4 cloves garlic, mashed, or diced very fine
1/4 t red chili pepper, crushed
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
4 Tblsp olive oil
1 tsp sweet basil, dried

Bring large pot of water to boil with salt and 1 T oil. Cook pasta al dente. Toss with 2 T olive oil.

In a medium sauce pan heat 2 T olive oil and saute onions until clear. Add garlic, basil and crushed red chili pepper. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Add clams and parsley. Cook only about 1 minute, just enough to warm clams. Mix well with pasta.

Sprinkle with fresh parmesan cheese and black pepper and serve.

- Don Chase

Pasta Atomica

Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs prawns (roughly 20 to 35 to the pound)
1 1/2 lbs steamer clams (or one can chopped clams)
2-3 pinches red pepper flakes ( more, if you like it really hot)
2-3 heads fresh garlic
1 bunch Italian flat leafed parsley
1 1/2 lbs dried, imported spaghetti or linguine
1 cup white wine
2 Tblsp salt
1/8 - 1/4 lb butter, salted
3-4 oz olive oil

Instructions
Finely chop garlic. In a pan, add garlic and about three ounces of olive oil. On low flame, simmer until garlic just begins to change color. Above all, do not allow it to brown. At that moment, add pepper flakes and about half of the chopped parsley. Add dollop of butter, allow sauce to simmer about a minute longer, then remove from heat and set aside. In a large covered pot, steam clams in wine and water for about three minutes after all clams have opened. Shuck and set aside meat and save nectar, discarding any clams that do not open. Shell prawns (no need to gut). Lightly sauté empty shells in remaining butter and olive oil, remove shells, and add prawns, dash of salt and a grinding of black pepper and then sauté only until all the prawns have turned reddish. Set prawns aside. Fill a large spaghetti pan two thirds of the way to the top with water (the rule is, at least a gallon of water per pound of pasta), add nectar. Bring water to a rapid boil, add 2 to 3 tablespoons salt, add linguine, spaghetti or spaghettini, stir and cook until al dente, usually 8 to 10 minutes. To check for doneness, start taste-testing strands after about 7 minutes. Drain (but do not rinse) pasta, plop it in bowl and add clams, prawns, garlic mixture (you may have to reheat at last moment), remaining parsley, then stir and serve. DO NOT SERVE WITH GRATED CHEESE.

Note: Grated cheese almost never is used with shellfish-based pasta dishes in Italy.

Created about 1978, inspired by Aglio e Olio, a Roman specialty.

- Brad O'Connor

Easy Ling Cod Appetizer

Ingredients
1 3-4 lb. ling cod filet, cut into 1"-2" cubes
4 T cajun seasoning
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 T curry powder
olive oil
butter

Mix flour with cajun seasoning thoroughly. Roll ling cod cubes in flour-cajun seasoning mix and place in a hot pan with 1 T butter and 1 T olive oil. I like to fry no more than 8 cubes at a time. Fry until just starting to turn golden brown. Do not over cook. Place on paper towels to drain.

In a separate bowl mix mayonnaise and curry powder.

Stab fried ling cod with toothpicks and serve. Invite guests to dip fish into mix. A variation is to put a dollop of curry mix on top of a Ritz or savory cracker and top with ling cod. Serve warm.

- Don Chase

Braised Fish Fillets with Tomato, Cilantro & Red Onion

Ingredient
6 fillets firm white fish (halibut, snapper, sea bass) about 5 oz. per fillet
1 Tblsp Worcestershire sauce
2 1/2 cups mayonnaise
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 Tblsp minced fresh cilantro
1 tsp dried tarragon
2 Tblsp Vermouth
1 Tblsp lime juice
1 Tblsp Worcestershire sauce
1 large red onion, sliced
3 large tomatoes, sliced
12 green olives, pitted
1 fresh jalapeno pepper, sliced lengthwise into thin strips

Instructions
Rinse fish and pat dry. Season with salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. In a bowl, mix mayonnaise, wine, cilantro, tarragon, Vermouth, lime juice and Worcestershire sauce. Preheat oven to 375F, or prepare barbeque - push coals to the side to cook with an indirect method. Cut 6 sheets of aluminum foil to make "boats" to hold the individual fish fillets. The sides of the foil "boat" should be wide enough barely close when folded to contain the fish. Spread a dollop of the mayonnaise mixture in the bottom of the foil "boat," then place a fish fillet on top, and cover with more of the mayonnaise mix. Top this with 2 slices of the red onion, 2 slices of tomato, and 2 green olives. Fold the foil sides up to contain the juices so that they will not seep out. Place the foil packets in a baking pan if in an oven, or directly on the grill, but not over the coals. Bake/grill for 10-20 minutes, depending on thickness of fillets. Open each foil packet and garnish with a sliced jalapeno strip. Serve immediately.

- Don Chase

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